The Bubble Jar

I was given a challenge to throw some paint at a page and incorporate it into a painting.
This is what I created:

The Bubble Jar

Flowers for Mary

Crocus and snowdrops, two beautiful flowers which herald the upcoming spring.
These, picked from a garden and put into a glass jug.

Flowers for Mary

When your vase is filled with flowers, paint them!

Good morning friends.

In the last post I told you to look down if you needed inspiration - and today I'm saying if anyone gives you flowers - once they are in the vase - paint them!
That way, you get twice the pleasure from one bouquet.

Which is what I did when my darling OH brought me flowers.
Funnily, when he was buying them, he was asked what he'd done wrong, that he needed to buy flowers for his wife. Isn't it a shame that was someone's first thought? He was told, nothing wrong, it's because I love her and she loves flowers, so I buy her some!

In this painting, I experimented with a few different techniques.
All great fun  - and very important to experiment, I feel. It makes you grow as an artist.
I hope you enjoy looking at this painting; painted on Saunders Waterford and measuring 8x11 inches.

Gratitude

Leaves Launch.... a floral painting

This is a painting of a floral gift, given to me to mark the launch of my novel, All in the Leaves.

I wanted to paint the roses and vase, so that I could always remember the flowers and my launch party - with a smile!

Leaves Launch

The  paper is Saunders Waterford, 140 rough - and the size is quarter sheet.
Many thanks to Lynne and Stuart for the flowers and the support.

Flight of the Bumble Bee

 A new painting, using one of my digital microscope photos as reference.

The close up photo was one of a flowering top of lavender that had missed the trim back before winter set in.
The title comes from the fact that this is the close up view, seen from above - not a view we normally see, but a bee would!

Flight of the Bumble Bee

More sketching

Over in our Painting Friends forum, we're having a daily sketch challenge.
So far, I am enjoying the discipline of knowing I ought to pick up the sketchbook every day and do something!
Some will be whimsical and some more traditional, whatever takes my fancy on the day.

I am approaching this with the idea that it should be fun and not a chore.
Yes, we could all do with improving - me included- but I don't want to do that at the expense of losing the joy.
Surely joy was the reason we all came to painting and drawing anyway - wasn't it? 

What brought me to drawing and painting? I can't remember if I told  you.  In a nutshell, I had started a new business, wasn't very busy and looked to drawing and painting to fill my time because I loved art at school. So I took a class and off I went. I'm still going :) 
How about you? What made you decide to pick a brush or a pencil up?

Patience and Flowers.

Good morning all.

A new week and a new chapter starts today!

This morning I deleted my Facebook account. They made a couple of changes too far, compromised my privacy - and really made it less fun!

I haven't the patience for it. Which is odd, because as artists we have to have patience, to see our creations grow, to learn new techniques and to develop.
As a gardener, I need to have patience, for plants don't rush.


Perhaps my patience is selective. I wonder if yours is too?


Talking of gardening and plants, the bed in front of the garage was planted up. It will take a year or two for these plants to spread and fill the bed.
If you would like to use the photos in this post as a basis for a painting, please do so.

Geranium

Japanese Anemone

Phlox

 

Butterfly - with hairs up to catch the warm air in the sun

and this one, I loved the shadow! 

I hope you all have a wonderful week. With patience in all the right places :)

love and hugs
Pat .

The Three Sisters

Yesterday I spent some more time on the step by step, and I think its finished. But I will wait a few days before I make that final call, because something else might pop out at me, or someone may come up with a suggestion that makes me think - oh yes, that would make it better!
That does happen, and I am not above taking suggestion to improve my paintings.

Sometimes when I visit other blogs, I am mindful not to say how or what I would change, because that would make it my painting - and we should allow each their own style! But at times, I can see how the addition of a darker shadow, or continuity in light source could improve what is there.
I'm happy for anyone to make constructive comments in the same vein.


Anyway, here's the first photo from yesterday.

Using a sap green and ultramarine mix, with varying degrees of stickiness, I painted some vague foliage and then some more defined foliage.
I did this because I wanted to express that the three flowers could be on a vine, or could be three flowers standing independently. I like that kind of ambiguity. Not always do I want my paintings to be clear cut, so that what you first see is all there is.
I then added some splatter , in dark green mix, and alizarin on its own.
To do this, load one brush with paint and then tap it against a second one, held at an angle that makes a cross - an upright one, like Jesus' cross - not an X cross. Make sure you cover the flowers with a piece of paper, if you don't want them splattered too :)

I looked at the painting for a while and the flowers seemed a little bland to me, so I deepened some shadows and added some veins. I made them stronger on the right most flower, to give one flower that stood out more than the others.
I think its finished now, unless of course, you'd like to come up with a suggestion to improve it.  I hope you've enjoyed how this painting has progressed.

One last hint someone else gave me. Click the picture to get the larger version, then squint as you view it. Apparently that gives you a rough impression of how you would see it on a wall, when you're seated!

The Three Sisters

Building some interest

Good morning, friends.

This post is not about increasing your savings, but building interest in the floral  painting :)

Underneath the flowers, brush in some clean wet water. Have your board at a tilt, so the water will run down a little.
With a light mix of ultramarine and sap green,  dab the brush just under the flower, so the wash blends into the clean water.

Also - make a couple of stems and swirls with the blue/green mix and add some aureolin dashes of paint with your rigger, to make some interesting flower spikes and vine type clingers.

With any luck, it should come out, something like this.

I am working at the day job this morning, but will be painting again this afternoon, so hopefully should have some more to show you tomorrow.
It will be building up some greens underneath the flowers. So don't wash your mix off your palette!

Time for a watch along experiment.

Do you remember the Famous Cactus? It had the swirly swishy background.

I was wondering what to paint, so thought to try an experiment.. the swirly background and a floral painting.

I have drawn the flowers from my imagination. Not sure if that's a good idea, but time will tell.

So here are the first few steps. If anyone wants to try this out for themselves - be my guest!

firstly, the drawing

Wet the paper completely, then add the background washes. A lazy S shaped swish of french ultramarine, alizarin crimson and aureolin.

after that has dried completely ( which takes a while as it was very wet) I add a second wash of aureolin to the flowers alone

that's it for today, will be back soon with some more stages.
Hope you've enjoyed and even feel inspired :)

For Claire and Sarah

Claire is a friend of mine, and Sarah is her sister.
Sarah passed away recently and was laid to rest yesterday.

I was thinking about them both and a couple of songs kept running round my mind. Firstly was the old nursery rhyme:

"Row, row , row your boat
Gently down the Stream,
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Life is but a dream"

secondly were some lines from a Stevie Wonder song:
"You are the Sunshine of my Life, forever you'll be in my heart"

I liked the idea of flowers being placed on the water and travelling gently down the stream.  So my flowers are the colour of Sunshine...

For Claire and Sarah, in memory of a life shared, in memory of happier times.
Until the sun shines on your reunion..

Gently Down the Stream

The Gift.

Yesterday I carried on down the abstract route.
I simplified a vase and flowers by making a contour drawing.
That is, an outline drawing of the edges of the flower mass and the edges of the vase. That's all.
Then I studied shadows and colour and simplified them.
This is what I came up with:

The Gift

The Great Scheme of Things and Artistic Ambitions

When I was 20, I decided to learn Ballroom and Latin American dance.
I remember clearly the first exam, taken at bronze level. Looking over at the seniors on the opposite side of the practice room and wondering if I'd ever be that good.

A few years later, I am taking another exam, first star, and I am at the far end of the practice room from the beginners. Practising before being called upstairs and joking around with one of the men, confident enough to play silly fools.  When I stopped practising and sat down, I saw a beginner on the other side look at me in a way I recognised. Would she ever be that good? That's when it struck me how far I'd come, but still there was lots to learn.


Art is a bit like that too.
I started off learning because I wanted to. Complimented recently on my art work, I look back and can see the improvement.

Art though, has so many varied facets, it would be difficult to be proficient at all of them in one lifetime.  I follow blogs when people paint in oils, use graphite, use photoshop, scratch board, and some who are very loose and some so photo realistic you'd think you could touch the subject.  In those arenas I would be a mere beginner - there is lots to learn.
In the great scheme of things, everything is relative - and it keeps your feet on the ground!  I would like to thank all my artist friends for that.

Like my dancers, we all have three things in common,
a love of art, a willingness to learn and we go at our art "affettuoso"  - with feeling!

Now, all the time I've been painting and learning, I've had one artistic ambition.
Not letters after my name, just a desire to paint one painting.
I've always wanted to paint a picture of the crucified Christ, but never thought I was good enough to do Him justice.
But , with the encouragement of my painting friends on my recent portraits ringing in my ears,  I've given it a go. Next week, I'm going to post all the stages and then the finished painting.

So how about you? Do you have an artistic ambition?

The Spirit Within

the finished painting - such fun to do!
There was some pouring involved, some negative painting and some lifting.
I will keep these techniques and you will no doubt see them popping up in my other paintings .

The Spirit Within

This painting will be added to my permanent gallery site
Pat Elliott Paintings

practice 2

here's the second stage of this practice piece.. colours are poured and white spaces left.. the next post will be the painting, because the flowers, shadow and light all get painted together.

Its really a fun technique !

Practice piece

I'm back on the flower practice - after this one there is one more fairly simple one I want to do and then my summer with North Light's book is done.
Hopefully the techniques I have learned will stick in my brain!

Here's the first stage - of three , so not too long to wait for the finished pic!

The loose background begins the practice piece

D-Day for Rocky

Here is the finished painting:

D-Day for Rocky

This painting will be added to my permanent gallery

Pat Elliott Paintings

Stage Two

After the first background was was left to dry, the paper was completely wet again and a second set of washes laid down.

These also had to be left to dry.
This painting technique needs a great deal of patience - or a pile of ironing!



This is one of my "secrets"
Between very wet washes that need to be bone dry before you paint again, I go off and iron at least four garments.
That way when I return, my painting is ready for the next stage!

Feel free to use that technique :lol:

More Flowers!

You know by now there wasn't a holiday away this year, that I had a new summerhouse/art studio instead.

And in the break, I have been practising floral paintings, using the techniques outlined in North Light's Big Book of Painting Watercolour flowers.

Here is the beginning of another of these practice pieces

Summer ShowStoppers - a work in progress

In an earlier post, I mentioned how I like to try something new over the summer break.

This year I wanted to concentrate on my floral paintings.

Whilst I eagerly await the arrival of North Light's Big book of painting watercolor flowers from the US, I decided to pick up a book by Wendy Tait and practice one of the demos.

Here is the drawing of what will become some showstopping summer fuchsias.